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Introduction

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

One of the largest but least populated states in the United States, Nevada ranks seventh in size but 35th in population. It is among the most mountainous of the 50 states. It also has vast desert areas. Part of Nevada’s interior is so desolate that it was long used as a testing range for nuclear devices. Other areas attract so many visitors that tourism is Nevada’s greatest single source of income.

Most of the population is centered in urban areas around the largest city, Las Vegas, located in the southeast, and Reno, in the west. Both cities have glittering entertainment sections that for the most part cater to tourists who are lured by statewide legalized gambling and liberal marriage and divorce laws.

Both cities, too, are gateways to vast scenic and outdoor recreation areas. South of Reno is Lake Tahoe, on the Nevada-California border in the rugged Sierra Nevada. Along the Nevada-Arizona border east of Las Vegas lies Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which includes Hoover Dam.

Memories of the Old West linger in picturesque ghost towns like Virginia City. The town was the site of the fabled Comstock Lode—a silver and gold deposit that became a mining bonanza. Because of the enormous quantities of silver ore that were mined in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Nevada is sometimes called the Silver State. The nickname Sagebrush State comes from Nevada’s abundant growth of wild sage.

Mineral production remains a major industry, though many ore deposits have been depleted. The state is the largest producer of gold in the United States. Agriculture, notably cattle and sheep ranching, is also significant. The major crops—grown largely on irrigated land—include alfalfa, hay, potatoes, wheat, and onions.

In the 20th century Nevada’s progress closely paralleled advances in irrigation, water storage, and other conservation and development projects. Continued development of water, land, and wildlife resources remains a critical challenge for the future.

With its large area and relatively small population, Nevada is one of the most thinly settled states. For most of the period from the mid-1980s through the early 21st century, however, its population grew faster than that of any other state.

Nevada takes its name from a Spanish word meaning “snow-covered,” which refers to the higher mountain ranges where the snow sometimes remains year-round. Throughout the state are many scenic mountain ranges that run in a north-south alignment. There are majestic mountains with such names as Opal, Rainbow, Ruby, and Blue to describe their distinctive colors. Between the mountain ranges are vast ranches as well as some valleys with salt flats and sand dunes. Clear, dry air and bright sunshine bring out the brilliant colors of mountains and desert.

Scenery, climate, entertainment, gambling, and sports resorts have made the tourist industry Nevada’s major source of income. Other attractions are the state’s liberal marriage and divorce laws, which were passed by the state legislature in 1931. Beginning in 1951 the barren stretches of Frenchman Flat and Yucca Flat, in southern Nevada, became famous as the testing grounds for atomic weapons. A moratorium on testing lasted from 1958 until 1961, when underground testing was resumed. In 1992, however, testing was permanently discontinued. Area 110,572 square miles (286,380 square kilometers). Population (2010) 2,700,551.

In the north, Nevada’s western and eastern boundaries run parallel to each other. The straight western boundary ends at Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada. From there the state tapers to its most southeastern point, along the Colorado River.

Natural Regions

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With the exception of its west-central and northeastern corners, the entire state of Nevada lies within the Great Basin section of the larger Basin and Range province. The west-central corner is part of the Cascade–Sierra Mountain system, and the northeastern corner belongs to the Columbia Plateaus region.

Great Basin

The Great Basin is the western part of the Basin and Range region, which stretches between the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west. The Great Basin is not a single bowl but a group of many enclosed basins and ranges with no drainage to the sea. The highland features of the Great Basin are the hundreds of mountain ranges where valley floors, though low in relation to surrounding mountains, stand higher than much of the Appalachian Highlands. Within the broad alluvial valleys are vast stretches of rangeland, ranches, irrigated farms, or dry desert lake beds.

The longest river is the Humboldt, which flows from east to west across the northern part of the state. It ends in Humboldt Sink. In the west, the Carson, Walker, and Truckee rivers flow eastward from the snowcapped Sierra Nevada. In the southeast the Virgin and Muddy rivers flow into the Colorado River.

An63ca

The
highest point in the state is Boundary Peak at 13,147 feet (4,007 meters), in the White Mountains along the Nevada-California border. The next highest point is Wheeler Peak at 13,065 feet (3,982 meters), in the Snake Range in White Pine county. The lowest point, at 470 feet (143 meters), is along the Colorado River at the southeastern border.

The largest natural lake entirely within Nevada is
Pyramid Lake, north of Reno. It is 30 miles (48 kilometers) long and 7 to 9 miles (11 to 14 kilometers) wide. Like Walker Lake to the southeast, Pyramid Lake is a remnant of Lake Lahontan, which covered more than 8,000 square miles (20,720 square kilometers) during the Ice Age. On the Colorado River are Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam, and Lake Mohave, formed by Davis Dam.

Columbia Plateaus

The northeastern edge of the state is taken up by the Columbia Plateaus, a continuation of a vast tableland across the border in Oregon and Idaho. This area is drained by the Owyhee River, which joins the Snake River in Oregon.

Sierra Nevada

The Sierra Nevada projects a lofty spur into western Nevada. Called the Carson Range, it overlooks Lake Tahoe, on the Nevada-California border.

Climate

Nevada has a semiarid climate because the high Sierra Nevada, rising along the western border, cuts off the rain-bearing winds from the Pacific Ocean. The average precipitation (rain and melted snow) in a year is only about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the northeast and less than 4 inches (10 centimeters) near Las Vegas, in the southeast. Much of it falls as snow in the winter months. In spring the melting snow contributes to the streams and creeks that flow from the mountains. Then for a brief time the alpine deserts become a riot of color with the blossoms of creosote,
cactus, sagebrush, wild iris, and wild peach.

Nevada has a broad diversity of climate, partly because of its variations in latitude and elevation. Winters are coldest in the northeast. The average January temperatures range from the low 20s F (about –4° C) in the north to about 40° F (4° C) in the south. The July average is nearly 70° F (21° C) in the north and in the mid-80s F (about 30° C) in the south. There may be sharp differences between daytime highs and nighttime lows. Even when summer days are extremely hot, the air cools quickly after sundown. The growing season varies from about 240 days a year in the south to 100 days or less in the northern and east-central sections.

Natural Resources

The settlement of Nevada was based chiefly on the state’s great wealth of mineral resources. Although many ore deposits have been worked out, the production of minerals is still a major industry in the state. Of greater importance are Nevada’s scenery and climate, which, along with Las Vegas’ nightclubs, provide the basis of a thriving tourist industry.

Other natural resources are the long stretches of open range and forests. Herds of cattle and sheep graze on the ranges, and forestland covers approximately one tenth of Nevada’s land. Trees—including juniper, pine, fir, spruce, and mountain mahogany—grow on the mountainsides.

The storage and use of water have long been of concern to the state. Nevada’s first large-scale irrigation project was also the first reclamation program started by the federal government under the National Reclamation Act of 1902. Completed in 1907, it was called the Truckee-Carson Project. In 1919 the name was changed to Newlands Project in honor of the Nevada senator Francis G. Newlands, a strong advocate of conservation. The project uses a series of reservoirs, diversion dams, and canals to impound the waters of the Truckee and Carson rivers for crop irrigation in Storey, Lyon, and Churchill counties.

Another major irrigation project is Rye Patch Reservoir, in Pershing county, completed in 1938. It impounds the waters of the Humboldt River for use in Lovelock Valley. Wild Horse Reservoir supplies water to farms in Elko county.

Along the southeastern border with Arizona, Hoover Dam was completed on the Colorado River in 1936, creating Lake Mead. Davis Dam, which was completed 67 miles (108 kilometers) downstream in 1953, created Lake Mohave. Both projects provide hydroelectric power and irrigation. They are a part of the vast Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

People

The majority of the people residing in Nevada are of European ancestry, more than four fifths of whom were born in the United States. Those identifying themselves as Hispanic, mainly of Mexican and Cuban origin, comprise a little more than one fourth of the state’s residents and are concentrated in the southeast. African Americans, who reside mostly in the Las Vegas and Reno areas, constitute less than one tenth of the population, as do Asians. Native Americans of the Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe tribes live on several reservations and make up a small fraction of the state’s population.

For most of the period from the mid-1980s through the early 21st century Nevada’s population grew faster than that of any other state, often at more than three times the national growth rate. This growth was largely the result of migration from other states; the birth rate was slightly above, and the death rate slightly below, the national average.
The impact of this migration has been felt most strongly in Las Vegas and surrounding Clark county and in Reno and surrounding Washoe county. These two metropolitan areas provide jobs for most Nevadans.

Cities

Almost half the people in the state live in the vicinity of Las Vegas, the largest city in Nevada. Once a campsite on the Old Spanish Trail, it is now the gateway to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. A booming tourist and entertainment industry greatly increased the population of Las Vegas in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Other large cities include Henderson and Reno. Henderson, midway between Las Vegas and Boulder City, is the state’s chief industrial center, producing titanium and heavy chemicals for commercial and defense needs. Reno, nicknamed “The Biggest Little City in the World,” is largely a tourist center. The city is also the site of the main campus of the University of Nevada. Although still relatively small, the city of North Las Vegas experienced a population surge beginning in the 1990s, largely because of the expansion of the city’s gaming and service industries.

Sparks and Carson City are the only other Nevada cities with populations of more than 20,000. Sparks is just east of Reno and is part of the same trading area. Carson City, the state capital, is near Lake Tahoe. Elko is the chief city of northeastern Nevada, in the heart of a livestock and mining region.

Recreation

Serving out-of-state vacationers and tourists is the primary industry in Nevada and employs the most people. About one quarter of the state’s jobs are in tourism. Main attractions include Death Valley, which extends into California, and Lehman Caves, in Great Basin National Park. Other leading attractions are Hoover Dam and Lake Mead National Recreation Area; Lake Tahoe and Mount Rose; Pyramid Lake, north of Reno; and Charleston Peak, near Las Vegas. The state has prime fishing and hunting facilities. Winter sports enthusiasts are drawn from all over the world to Lake Tahoe, Charleston Peak, and the Ruby Mountains in the east.

Reno and Las Vegas
attract great numbers of visitors each year to their luxury hotels, restaurants, clubs, and casinos. Virginia City is the best known of the state’s many interesting ghost towns. In the state park system are areas of exceptional scenic and historic interest. These include Cathedral Gorge, near Pioche, Red Rock Canyon, near Las Vegas, and Valley of Fire, near Overton. Fossils of giant aquatic reptiles from the waters that covered much of Nevada millions of years ago are preserved in the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in central Nevada.

Education

The education of a scattered population has been one of Nevada’s greatest challenges. When the territory was organized in 1861 it provided for a school system supported by county taxation. The constitution of 1864 expanded the system. In 1956 the school districts were replaced by 17 county districts. The following year the office of state superintendent of public instruction, which for 90 years had been an elective office, became appointive by the State Board of Education.

University of Nevada

The University of Nevada, founded at Elko in 1874, was moved to Reno in 1885. Its southern campus is at Las Vegas. The University of Southern Nevada was established in 2000 in Henderson. Great Basin College, founded in 1967, grants two- and four-year degrees; it has its main campus in Elko and provides higher education to rural Nevadans through distance learning, branch campuses, and satellite centers. There are two-year colleges in Elko, Carson City, Reno, Douglas, Fallon, and North Las Vegas.

Economy

Mining and agriculture, Nevada’s traditional economic activities, remain important, although today they are eclipsed by manufacturing, government, and tourist-related services. About one fourth of the state’s workforce is employed in the service sector.

Agriculture and Forestry

Leendert Krol/Newmont Gold Company

More than four fifths of Nevada’s total land area is owned by the U.S. government, with different parcels administered by various federal agencies. The Bureau of Land Management controls more than half of the state’s federal land, much of which is actually administered by agencies such as the Forest Service, and the Departments of Defense, Energy, and the Interior. Much of the public land is open, nevertheless, to ranchers for cattle grazing.

Factors such as water availability, a short growing season, soil quality, and the mountainous terrain limit the land areas that can be cultivated. Croplands are heavily dependent on irrigation, even in river valleys. Among the major crops are alfalfa—which also produces a profitable seed crop—hay, potatoes, wheat, and barley. Garlic and onion production steadily increased beginning in the late 20th century.

Livestock ranching, however, is the primary source of agricultural income. The large cattle and sheep ranches are chiefly in Elko, Humboldt, and Lander counties. Dairy and poultry farms have become important in western and southeastern Nevada, where horse ranches also have been developed.

About one tenth of Nevada’s land is devoted to forests and woodlands. The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, a small part of which crosses the border into California, contains some 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers). Private holdings support only a small-scale lumber industry. Aside from lumber production, the forests are of importance for the conservation of water and wildlife and in providing recreational opportunities.

Industry

Mining has been a major industry since the discovery of the Comstock Lode at Virginia City. At one time Nevada yielded more silver than all the other states combined. More than two dozen minerals are mined in Nevada each year. The state’s most valuable mineral by far is gold, and Nevada ranks first in output in the United States. Nevada also produces barite, magnesium, lithium, bruxite, gypsum, molybdenum, and gemstones. Other important minerals include sand and gravel, lime, and crushed stone. Petroleum was discovered in Nye county in 1954; commercial production began in the 1970s and has since expanded to Eureka and Elko counties.

Manufacturing is diverse, and most of the larger enterprises are located in Clark or Washoe counties. The leading product groups are medical equipment, metal products, food and food by-products, plastics and rubber products, and printing and publishing. A large industrial complex is located in Henderson, where factories process titanium ore and produce industrial chemicals.

Services

Tourism and its related activities contribute more income than mining, agriculture, and manufacturing combined and employ more than two fifths of the workforce. Although millions of people visit Lake Mead and other recreational and scenic areas, tourism centers on several attractions that largely are unique to Nevada.

The 24-hour-a-day gaming casinos in Las Vegas are the most publicized aspect of the legal gambling industry. Just as important to the casinos are the luxury hotels, gourmet restaurants, golf courses, and nightclubs that have made Las Vegas—and, to a lesser extent, Reno and Lake Tahoe—one of the country’s major centers of live entertainment. Small towns also emphasize the hospitality industry and tourism.

Transportation

The first road across northern Nevada was the Humboldt Trail, part of the California Trail. It followed the Humboldt River, which provided water for wagon trains as they crossed this dry region. In the south, the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to southern California passed through Nevada. These trails eventually became the routes for modern highways.

Three major railroads, as well as some short feeder lines, were built to serve Nevada. The Central Pacific (now Southern Pacific) was the first railroad to enter the state. It reached Reno from the west in 1868. Later that year it was completed across Nevada to Utah. The Union Pacific linked Las Vegas to Salt Lake City in 1905. Two years later the Western Pacific, building along the Humboldt River, reached Elko. By the end of the 20th century, however, only two freight lines served Nevada.

The first public airport in Nevada opened in 1948. Today, there are numerous airports and airfields. Two international airports—McCarran International, at Las Vegas, and Reno/Tahoe International, at Reno—are located within Nevada’s borders.

Government

Glen Allison/Getty Images

Carson City, which served as the territorial capital, became the state capital when Nevada was admitted to the Union. The state is governed under its original constitution, adopted in 1864.

The chief executive officer is the governor, who is elected every four years. The Senate and the Assembly make up the legislature. The judiciary is headed by the Supreme Court.

History

Archaeological evidence indicates that Paleo-Indian settlements existed in Nevada more than 20,000 years ago. Cave dwellers left picture writings on rocks in southern Nevada, and Ancestral Pueblo and Pueblo Indians also flourished there.

European explorers entering the Nevada country found several different tribes of Native Americans living there. In the north were the Shoshone and the Northern Paiute. In the southern part of the state lived the Southern Paiute. The Washoe were in the west near Lake Tahoe. These tribes were peaceful and nomadic hunters and seed gatherers. (See alsoGreat Basin Indians.)

European Exploration and Settlement

The first non-Indians known to have entered this forbidding region of mountains and deserts that was to become Nevada were missionaries and fur traders. In 1775–76 the missionary Francisco Garcés traveled from New Mexico to California; he was followed by other Spanish Franciscans. Hudson’s Bay Company trappers explored the northern and central region in 1825, and two years later Jedediah Smith led a party of American traders into the Las Vegas Valley and across the Great Basin. By 1830 the Old Spanish Trail was bringing traders to the area from Santa Fe and Los Angeles, and in 1843 and 1845 John C. Frémont’s explorations with Kit Carson aroused much interest in the region. The gold rush of 1849 greatly expanded migration through Nevada to California.

In 1848 Nevada was included in the territory ceded to the United States by Mexico. Most of it became part of the Territory of Utah. The area’s first non-Indian settlement was made in 1849 at the western edge of Carson Valley. There a group of Mormons from Salt Lake City built a summer trading post to trade with the immigrants and gold miners who were crossing the region en route to California. Mormon Station (the present Genoa) had permanent settlers by 1851.

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The discovery of gold and silver in 1859 brought a rush of fortune seekers into Washoe Valley.
The largest settlement, Virginia City, became a bustling town with a population of 30,000 in the 1870s. Over the years the Comstock Lode has yielded some 900 million dollars in minerals.

Territory and State

Nevada, which had been denied territorial status by the U.S. Congress in 1857, was finally organized as a territory in 1861. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Republican Administration was eager to add to its strength in Congress. An enabling act to make Nevada a state was passed in 1863, but a proposed state constitution was rejected by the voters of the territory.

Congress passed a second enabling act in 1864. Another constitution was drafted, and this time it was accepted by the Nevada voters. The entire constitution was telegraphed to Washington, D.C., at a cost of $3,416.77. Nevada was admitted to the Union on Oct. 31, 1864, in time for the state to ratify the 13th Amendment and ensure its adoption. To commemorate Nevada’s admission during the American Civil War, the state flag bears a scroll that reads BATTLE BORN.

A new rush of miners entered the state with the discovery of silver deposits at Tonopah in 1900 and of gold at Goldfield in 1903. In Goldfield’s peak year, 1910, its mines yielded 11 million dollars. In 1913 Tonopah achieved its peak of 9.5 million dollars.

In 1931 the legislature reduced its divorce residency requirements from three months to six weeks. As a result, Reno became famous as a busy divorce and marriage center. That same year Nevada legalized gambling, and by the end of the decade the city had become a major resort center. Gambling taxes are a major source of revenue for the state.

National Archives and Records Administration

In 1951 the Atomic Energy Commission began nuclear-weapons tests at the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range. Such tests were conducted underground after 1961, and in 1968 a hydrogen bomb was set off 3,800 feet (1,158 meters) below the surface. Meanwhile, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration began to use part of the range for nuclear-reactor research. Underground nuclear testing continued, administered by the Department of Energy, at the Nevada Test Site in the southeastern part of the state until 1992, when all testing was permanently banned.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Nevada focused primarily on such pressing issues as economic development and tourism. Nevada was consistently among the fastest-growing states in the country and often held the top position in that regard. The rapid growth, however, continued to pose considerable challenges for resource management, social services and health care, and other aspects of Nevada’s society and economy. (See alsoUnited States, “Western Basins and Plateaus”).

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